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So we were looking over the Gothamist Contribute and we noticed the photo to your left from kerfuffle & zeitgeist's flickr stream. Ever since we were first started going on urban hikes (not to mention when we started working nearby) we've found this incongruous sign, located on 27th and Park Avenue South, and it's many brethren strange. We'd just never thought of Fourth Avenue being a "real" avenue beyond it's tiny existance between Astor Place and Union Square. And it wasn't like our parents ever corrected us for miscalling Fourth Avenue Park Avenue South (unlike say the time we got hit upside the head for referring to Sixth Avenue as the Avenue of the Americas... lesson learned!)
So, a brief Sunday history lesson (with much help from forgotten-ny and wikipedia)! The story of Fourth Avenue, and Park for that matter, is directly related to the history of railroads in the city. In the early nineteenth century the New York & Harlem Railroad (later bought by New York Central) needed a place to run it's steam locomotives into the city. The City in turn decided that the still only planned Fourth Avenue would be the prefect place for that, and the rails went right on down the island. Eventually however, the city got sick of the noise and dirt and the the trains were forbidden from going further downtown then 42nd street (which is why Grand Central is where it is).
In the mid to late nineteenth one of the all time great real estate schemes was brought into effect: The rails leading into Grand Central were to be put underground, and Fourth Avenue would be renamed the far classier sounding Park Avenue. The plan worked like gangbusters and previously worthless land became some of the most valuable property in the world. It was so successful, in fact that in 1959 in an attempt to put some of that uptown shine onto Fourth Avenue, the City renamed the stretch from 17th to 32nd Streets Park Avenue South. Which is why if you look around you can still see lots of signage that says Fourth Avenue.
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Great posting Garth. Just a small addition:
The hill just South of 42nd Street on Park Avenue proved to be too steep for the locomotives, so a channel was cut through it. As the city, growing North from downtown reached this slice through Murray's Hill, the residents complained about the noise, dirt and danger. That prompted the Commodore Vanderbilt, who had bought the NY&H by this time to cover them over and rename the stretch from 42 to 34 "Park Avenue".
The area North of the station would come later.